And so it begins. When Senator Saxby Chambliss announced last week that he no longer considered himself bound by a no-new-taxes pledge he signed two decades ago, the Georgia Republican made an important break with a GOP article of faith — an early sign that compromise could yet be possible in the coming weeks and months.

And maybe years. Endorsed by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and by Representative Peter King of New York, the Chambliss decision — one that put him on the other side of Grover Norquist and the conservative base — is reminiscent of what began happening among Democrats in the aftermath of the 1984 Reagan landslide. Old allegiances to traditional Democratic constituencies were re-examined; the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) urged office holders and candidates to adopt centrist rhetoric and a promarket orientation.

It worked. In the 1990s Bill Clinton became the first two-term Democratic president since FDR, and Al Gore — another early DLCer — won the popular vote in 2000. The climatic moment of the New Democrat ascendancy came in 1996, when Clinton declared that “the era of big government” was over.

Republicans are overdue for their own rethinking. After the exhaustion of the first decade of the new century, it’s understandable that such self-examination has been slow in coming, but it apparently has finally come. Whether the GOP is to be pragmatic in the mold of George H.W. Bush or more ideological in the mode of his son is a live question. The Chambliss-Graham-King moment suggests the debate is very much on.

In the short and medium term, President Obama may be able to take advantage of the fluid opinion within the GOP to get a lasting fiscal deal. In the long term, the kind of party the Republicans choose to be will help define our politics as surely as the rise of the New Democrats did.

The democrats learned their lesson after McGovern and Dukakis and swung their party closer to the center (initially under Clinton); repubs need to wake up and move their party from the wingnut right closer to the center. They also need to be less obstructionist (e.g., the lowering of our credit rating) and more compromising.

The American voter elect the politicians, NOT Norquist. All the money in the world will not win the peoples vote as the 2012 election showed us. Republicans, having spent billions in campaigns and ads lost. The American people are truly more smart then the Norquist and his croonies.

It is high time that Republicans change their ideological thoughts in the interest of the nation--if the GOP is going to survive in the future. Republicans should do something positive for America by abandoning Grover Norquist's no-new-taxes pledge, which is an insult to themselves and the nation. If the GOP continues to be the political servant of the rich, it is destined to face the desert of the electorate.

57% of Americans favor raising taxes on the wealthy, including billionaire Warren Buffett. Is the GOP going to ignore the wishes of the American people? Luckily, there are some Republicans who are reasonable, moderate and fair-minded. Senators Saxby Chamblis and Lindsay Graham and Representative Peter King, among others, are doing a great service to the GOP and the nation by rejecting the no-new-taxes pledge. They care about the future of America.

President Barack Obama stands a better chance to avoid the "fiscal cliff" crisis.

If the President gives the GOPers a way to save face, they'll fall all over themselves to make a compromise deal. It's the only way they can go to their constituents in 2014 and show off what they've done. (Despite all those nasty ol' libruls.)

I saw Reagan's son, Ron Reagan,, Jr., on TV say that his father would not adhere to "Reaganism" if he were alive today. His father was far to willing to work with everyone. Furthermore, Ron Reagan, Jr., said his father could not get nominated for president in today's Republican party. Apparently, the guy just couldn't hate liberals enough to make the grade.

I miss the conservative party that were intelligent bankers that served the interest of fiscal responsibility and left their noses largely out of social issues like abortion or gay marriage. Whatever happened to those guys?

blah blah blah Liberals talking about how Republicans should be more like them... surprise surprise... how innovative. Meanwhile the only Republicans that win are the "real" conservatives like Reagan and W. blah blah blah we heard this talk about the dissappearance of the Republican Party in 2008... then you had your arses handed to you in 2010. The Tea Party is alive, well, and growing so get ready for another shellacking in 2014.

I believe the current intolerance in politics derives from the deliberate and successful efforts of conservative Christians to mobilize their fellow-believers into a political bloc to enact their conservative religious doctrines into civil law through political action. Theologically conservative themselves, they gravitated to the more conservative political party and reinforced the secular conservatives who were attempting to revive conservatism as a movement.

As these efforts bore fruit at the ballot box, the conservative movement was overwhelmed by the far-more-numerous (or merely more passionate) religious conservatives, and the entire movement/bloc has become characterized by a religious self-righteousness. It has become a crusade to save America from unrighteousness.

But salvation is a zero-sum game: For God to win, Satan has to lose, and not just lose, but be completely vanquished, eliminated. In that battle, compromise is not an option. That’s why the tea party-supported members of Congress are intransigent, and that’s why Congress is tied in knots. Although the talking heads noted that the 2012 election has produced no substantive change in the composition of the Congress and the Presidency, I think the Republican Party, as it licks its wounds and ponders the results of the campaigns in states where the tea party was in the ascendant, may come to realize that extremism in the defense of liberty may indeed be a vice (apologies to Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign slogan), and may begin to cleanse itself of the corrupting influence of the purveyors of religion-fueled hatred and intolerance.

As a Bahá’í, I believe partisan politics is incapable of fundamentally transforming society (that’s the job of religion, and it only works by changing hearts), but if this election can prompt the partisans to search their souls and act on their best impulses, I can hope for a return to a more civil, honest and intelligent political discourse.

Conservatism is conservatism. It should have nothing to do with race, gender, or religion.

So maybe once the conservatives realize that half the baggage they've been carrying is inherited from the white backlash to civil rights loss in the '60s, maybe we can get back to being a country again:

State's rights (after all, they are Republicans!), smaller government, less taxes etc etc have nothing to do with all the other excreta they've been trying to sell this past 40 years. The "angry white male" is going geriatric. Let's put it in a nursing home.

It will be interesting to see how effectively the Republicans can manage their fiscal (and social) lunatic fringes. If they can, so much the better.

However, don't expect the rationality of a small number of senators and congressmen to carry the party back towards the center. The GOP is still hostage to the Faustian bargain they made in the 70s to pursue a strategy of pandering to the far right, and they are still hostage to the billionaires who bankroll the party and for whom higher capital tax (or other) tax rates are anathema.

It is, nonetheless, encouraging to see that some Republican lawmakers are actually taking their oaths of office and loyalty to the republic more seriously than their pledges to Grover Norquist. Maybe there'll be progress on other fronts as well?

I'm happy to see this, honestly. I lean to the left..always have, and probably always will. But, there are legitimate ideas on the right. The problem (especially the last few years) is the far right has controlled the rhetoric.

And I don't buy the "they're just trying to get us to abandon our principles and become more like democrats. Look, if your party platform wants to be pro-choice..that's fine..but don't make it a litmus test to be in the party. You want to be for "traditional" marriage? Fine, but don't tell gays or people for gay marriage they can't be a part of the club. That's been their problem. They used wedge issues and made it "you're with us, or against us" kind of mentality..you can't do that and win a national election.

The Republicans electoral strength comes from the South and Border States, the bible belt and its social conservative platform reflects the John Birch Society agenda. The Republican Party if it were in fact to change would require dumping its basic electoral base which I doubt will happen, while the national so called Republican leaders talk the talk the reality is that little real movement can happen unless the Bible Belt suddenly has a political awaking and moves left.

Vickie - one of these days you may be in a position to need financial help. Listen to DonQuixotic - millions of these illegals work from sun up to sun down for minimum wage and they live in shacks. Do we need to STOP illegal immigration - YES - but the majority of Hispanics are good, hard working people and they don't need to be hated. I am 100% for stopping any new illegals, but many who are here help our country.

I do fear the Hispanic population becoming the number one voting block in the future - so that needs to be controlled - but that needs to be done in a better way than it has been done in the past hundred years. People who are allowed to become citizens should be divided between the citizens coming from all the countries, so that we will not have a Hispanic top voting block.

Republicans are finally waking up to the realization that it is the un-elected, fringe policy groups who try to control them like puppets that are the real problem. These extreme-right idealogues also have their hands pulling the strings of the press and use it to personally bludgeon those who disagree with them.

The GOP has put its tail between its legs when faced with these idealogues and wrapped itself in so much of their random dogma that the entire party is paralyzed and no longer capable of taking any real action, except to repeat the slogans of their political masters.

It's about time the republicans showed some balls and stood up to these handful of 'kooks.

It's not clear that the Republicans have been working in the interest of the whole nation. Their professed belief in trickle-down economics, disproved over and over, now rings only of self-interest. We're all right, Jack, so screw the 47%. They absolutely reject the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats--the basic principles of hydrology, By keeping most of us poor, they enrich themselves a little. If they paid more of their fair share of taxes, they'd hardly notice it--what's $ 250 a month when you're pulling down 100 or more times that? It won't pay the interest on a new house, but it would do a lot for the economy, as would raising the minimum wage to $10 even for Walmart employees. In my first summer job after my freshman year in college, I made $3 an hour, about twice the minimum wage, teaching Spanish at my old high school. That's equivalent to $23.44 in today's money. Ergo, today's minimum wage should be $11.72.

@reallife You do realize that midterm elections are different than presidential ones. Your misguided insistence that your brand doesn't need any change and be more aligned with the tea party only guarantee you NEVER win a presidential election again. Sure you can hold the House due to gerrymandering and lower voter turnout but you somehow missed the fact that your anti-Obama, anti-tax mantra was rejected.

You can blame minorities, 'freeloaders' and liberals all you want. But the facts are there....TWICE (in Presidential elections) the American people rejected what you were selling when it was very clear on the differences between Obama and the GOP.

That is the kind of primitive nonsense that is destroying this country. When the first christians came to this country they called the Native Americans primitive even though the natives had six different creation stories just like the one in the so-called bible. Most jewish people don't even believe is hell or satan anymore. The ancient hebrews had no culture so they made one up. It's all fairy tales. No palace of David or Soloman has ever been found. A library from about 100 A.D. was uncovered in Jerusalem a couple of years ago and none of the scrolls they found said anything about any Yeshua(Jesus).

@TomArmistead Not to defend crack pot American evangelical christians but I think your putting the cart before the horse. They are tools being utilized by wealthy interests to further their own goals. The tea party is a fine example of a "party" that would not exists with out the financial backing of 4 men only one of which is a practicing Christian.

@roncaldwell32 : Having extreme conservative right Evangelicals and Catholics in my family, I can tell you that it is much more deeper. Currently, there are pastors, priests, and ministers telling their congregation who to vote for. I had relatives who were convinced that voting for Obama was a "sin" because he represents the side of pro-choice. This is not going away any time soon. It will take another generation or two for that to happen. Evangelicals and Catholics will have to start losing MANY adherents ... which equates to $$$$$, before they get their nose back out of politics and back into the business of being about love, hope, faith, kindness, charity, etc.

I'm not sure if I completely agree. I think they can keep their core principles intact. They can still be pro-choice or for "traditional" marriage. They just shouldn't make it a litmus test to be in the party. All of those RINOs the base complains about? Bring them in..there's shouldn't be some kind of purity test to be in the party.

@VickieArnold Vickie, as I'm sure you're a good person at heart, let me re-phrase for you..... "We have a broken immigration / guest worker program that needs immediate attention from our elected officials."

@VickieArnold I see plenty of parasitic Whites but where is your hate towards them? When you get beyond making stupid generalizations, then maybe we can talk until then you are no better than the idiots calling Obama a terrorist.

Are you willing to go work on a farm for far below minimum wage to take up the jobs they won't be there to do? Are you OK with the cost of your food and many of your textiles going up tremendously overnight?

@veronicadiall I'm not generalizing about any group, only commenting on similarities between the approach of the tea party and of the conservative Christians, based on my understanding of their respective philosophical underpinnings. If you think I am misunderstanding, I would welcome a serious reply.

@SwiftrightRight I don't disagree that moneyed interests are bankrolling a lot of the players. I only contend that the rigid, no-compromise ideology that has abased our politics and made governing nearly impossible looks a lot like the no-compromise theology of conservative Christian churches and probably grows out of their theology. The moneyed interests are just helping to fuel the movement, which would be, I think, less passionate without the religious involvement.

@ThebeBashaleebee@roncaldwell32 What do you expect from these "so-called men of GOD" (I don't call them that - and I AM A CHRISTIAN - but GWBush gave many churches $1million OF OUR TAX MONEY -- to promote abstinence. I say if a church cannot promote abstinence without a million dollars that they should start paying taxes and take the word "church" off their buildings and other things. Jenny